A clean, feature-rich, browser-based Twitter client that updates in real time. If you’re looking for a better way to experience Twitter, but don’t want to install yet another application on your computer, you should really check out Streamie. This real-time Twitter client isn’t only attractive and fast: it’s useful.

Streamie provides some of the benefits of Twitter clients, such as URL shortening and quick image uploading, but can be accessed on the web. Best of all, it’s real-time, much like the Twitter site itself. Streamie worked really well for me on Chrome and Firefox, although it should work fine on any HTML5-compliant browser.

Fast, Clean, Awesome.

Head over to Streamie to get started. You’ll need to authenticate your Twitter account of course, but once you do, everything will look as it should:

As you can see, this client is clean. What you can’t see of course is that updates are instant. It’s kind of scary how quickly this thing works. Basically, if something new happens on Twitter you will see it instantly, a feature I don’t think I’ve seen outside of Twitter itself.

There are the usual buttons to browse: your @ mentions, retweets and private messages are all a click away. Writing your own message is quick:

Unlike the Twitter site, uploading an image and shortening links only takes a click. The fact that this is possible without plugins makes Streamie much easier to use than Twitter.

There are some nice perks here for reading, as well. Is there a picture in a tweet? Mouse over the link to see a preview. There’s also a solution here for a perennial Twitter problem: a piece of conversation without context. Click the “Conversation” button underneath such a tweet to be shown what was said leading up to a given comment.

Settings

There are a few settings you can configure. If you like the wallpaper you’ve selected in Twitter, you’ll be happy to know that Streamie can show it. Unlike the new Twitter however, Streamie leaves enough free space on the screen for your wallpaper to be visible.

It’s also possible to add your location to Tweets and automatically translate any tweets not in your preferred language. Like all web-based translations, it’s not perfect but being able to understand things a little better is never a bad thing.

Conclusion

Is Streamie groundbreaking? Probably not. But if you’re looking for a good, web-based Twitter client that stays out of your way I think you’ll be happy. I’d recommend this web app to anyone not pleased with the recent changes made at Twitter.com. It’s everything Twitter should have added without the added clutter. There’s even a Streamie Chrome app.

Those with a background in programming will be pleased to know that this project is open source, and you can make your own version if you want. Read more about hacking Streamie.

But you don’t need any hacking skill to use Streamie; it’s self-explanatory for anyone familiar with Twitter. I think I’ll be using this more often – will you? Let me know what you think of this real-time Twitter client, and why, in the comments below.

Justin Pot is a technology journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He loves technology, people and nature – and tries to enjoy all three whenever possible. You can chat with Justin on Twitter, right now.